The process of detecting, converting, and transmitting information from the outside world is called ___________.

sensation

___________ begins with "higher"-level processing involving thoughts, previous experiences, expectations, language, and cultural background and works down to the sensory level.

top-down processing

In testing Taylor's hearing, the examiner presents a small change in volume and asks her to respond when she notices a difference. The examiner is testing her ___________.

difference threshold

The lowest or quietest sound people can hear is their ___________.

absolute threshold

The conversion of stimulus energy into neural impulses is called ___________.

transduction

In the process of ___________, we filter incoming sensations, and then analyze them before sending a neural impulse to the cortex of the brain.

sensory reduction

Different physical stimuli are interpreted as distinct sensations because the impulses travel to different parts of the brain. This is due to:

transduction

José can sleep through storms, his neighbor's dog barking, and the television, yet he awakens abruptly at the slightest whimper of his newborn baby. The structure that filters this information and alerts the cortex to important information is called the:

reticular formation

Thanks to the research in ___________ we are now using dogs' gift of smell sensitivity for search and rescue, crime prevention, and chemical detection of some diseases.

psychophysics

Kayla's hearing is being tested. The specialist uses a tone generator that produces sounds of differing pitches and intensities. Kayla is asked to listen to the sounds over earphones and to indicate the earliest point at which she can hear a tone. This establishes her:

absolute threshold.

Research on ___________ demonstrates that some information processing occurs below our conscious awareness.

subliminal stimuli

You visit your friend's apartment and are overwhelmed by the odor of the four cats that live there. Your friend probably doesn't notice the odor as you do because of the phenomenon of ___________.

sensory adaptation

Katie sees an acupuncturist to help relieve chronic back pain. One reason acupuncture may help is that her relief is probably caused by the release of ___________, which inhibit(s) pain perception.

endorphins

Sensory adaptation occurs when ___________.

a sensory system becomes less responsive to continuous stimulation

Hiroko uses breathing and visualization techniques to help control her labor pain. Which theory helps explain the effectiveness of these techniques?

gate-control theory

The gate-control theory of pain perception ___________.

may explain why acupuncture works

The wavelength of light, which is the distance between the crest of one wave and the crest of the next, determines its:

hue

The ___________ of light determines its hue, and the ___________ determines its brightness.

wave length, amptitude

Light travels through the cornea on through the ___________ to the ___________.

iris, pupil and lens

The receptors in the eye responsible for color vision and seeing fine detail are the ___________ the receptors in the eye responsible for dim-light vision are the ___________.

cones, rods

The ___________ are receptor cells in the retina that detect shades of gray, are responsible for peripheral vision, and are most sensitive in dim light.

rods

Located in the center of the retina, the ___________ is a tiny pit filled with cones that are responsible for sharp vision.

fovea

___________ is the process that occurs when your visual system shifts from rods to cones when a light is switched on in a dark room.

light adaption

You walk into a dark movie theater on a bright, sunny afternoon and are momentarily blinded. Within seconds, you can see in the dark theater. This process whereby the eyes adjust to allow vision in dim light is called ___________.

dark adaption

Peter's eye doctor has told him that he has myopia, commonly known as nearsightedness, and needs glasses. This is because of what problem?

Due to the shape of his eye, images focus in front of the retina.

___________, proposed by Young, is that color perception results from mixing three distinct color systems – red, green, and blue.

Trichromatic theory

The ___________ theory of color vision states that there are three systems of color opposites (blue-yellow, red-green, and black-white).

opponent-process

The amplitude determines the:

loudness

___________ theory explains how we hear higher-pitched sounds. Different high-pitched sounds bend the basilar membrane hair cells at different locations in the cochlea.

place

The frequency of a sound wave is sensed as the ___________ of a sound.

pitch

Rock concerts, blaring radios, and raucous pep rallies are ___________.

damaging to auditory receptors

Smell and taste can both be adversely affected by the ___________.

common cold

Our chemical senses are ___________.

taste and smell

Airborne chemicals released from one individual that affect another individual's behavior are known as ___________.

pheromones

Chemical molecules pass through the nose and come into contact with the dendrites of the olfactory receptors, initiating a neural impulse. The impulse travels along the axon directly to the ___________, where most olfactory information is processed.

olfactory bulb

The skin senses include pressure, pain, and ___________.

temperature

Light stimulation of both pressure and pain receptors results in the sensation of ___________.

all of the above

A(n) ___________ is a false impression of the physical world that can be produced by actual physical distortions or by errors in the perceptual process.

illusion

___________ are false impressions of the environment; whereas ___________ are sensory perceptions that occur without external stimulus.

Illusions; hallucinations

Tony just used LSD and as a result perceives that his roommate is turning into a spider-like creature. He is experiencing a:

hallucinations

Richard has suffered damage to feature detectors in the temporal and occipital lobes. He can recognize when he is looking at a face but cannot say whose face it is. He cannot even recognize himself in the mirror. This condition is known as:

prosopagnosia

Filtering out and attending only to important sensory messages is the definition of ___________.

selective attention

Specialized cells in the brain that respond only to certain sensory information are known as ___________.

feature detectors

Melissa was surprised when the three people who had been sitting together on a bench at the mall each got up separately and walked away with no gesture of "goodbye"; she had perceived them as being a group, based on the Gestalt principle of ___________.

proximity

Which basic Gestalt principle of organization states that objects that are physically alike are perceived as grouped together?

similarity

___________ is the tendency for the environment to be perceived as remaining the same in spite of changes in sensory input.

Perceptual constancy

A subject lived in a rain forest so dense that he had never seen further than about 100 yards. When the subject first saw a herd of water buffalo in the distance, he thought they were insects. As they drove toward the "insects," they seemed to "grow" into buffalo. This is an example of:

size constancy

The tendency to see a complete figure such as a circle from an incomplete figure is:

closure

___________ is a binocular distance cue in which the separation of the eyes results in different images on each retina.

Retinal disparity

___________ refers to the fact that when an observer is moving, objects at various distances move at different speeds across the retinal field. Close objects appear to fly by quickly, farther objects seem to move more slowly, and very distant objects appear to remain stationary.

motion parallex

___________ is the final stage of perception.

interpretation

The neuromuscular cue to distance caused by both eyes turning in or out to focus on an object is called ___________.

convergence

___________ is a binocular depth cue in which the eyes turn inward as objects move closer. The amount of strain in the eye muscles is used as a cue by the brain to interpret distance.

convergence

The ___________ is an apparatus used by scientists to study depth perception.

visual cliff

___________ allows us to more accurately estimate the distance of perceived objects and thereby perceive the world in three dimensions.

depth perception

Which of the following is NOT correct?

Larger objects are usually seen as farther away.

A tendency to perceive in a particular manner, based on experiences and expectations, is known as ___________.

all of these

Because of ___________, an elephant is perceived as much larger when it is standing next to a mouse than it is when it stands next to a giraffe.

frame of reference

Belinda says that she and her twin sister communicate without speaking and have a direct line of communication with each other. If this is true, the twins have a type of ESP known as:

precognition

When someone can perceive objects or events without any stimulation of their known sensory receptors, that person has ___________.

clairvoyance

Which of the following is not one of the faulty forms of reasoning given for believing in ESP?

cross-culture expectation

Paige goes to her local fortune teller regularly so she will know what to expect in the months to come. She believes in the teller's ability for ___________.

precognition